ECOMP 7010: Handheld Mobile Devices

Directions: In this activity we will be exploring many ways that mobile devices can be used to access information, communicate, share audio and visual files, and enhance classroom lessons. We will be focusing on creative and forward thinking possibilities. This is a “jig saw” approach to an activity. Instead of all of you researching and reading all five topics, each group will become experts at one topic.

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Audio Apps: Classroom Use of Broadcasts, Podcasts, Phonecasts

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Authors:
Tammy McNulty
Nick Shuman
Marty Warren

In today's 21st Century Classroom, a critical component in this skill base is that of digital storytelling. We have the technology to create and tell stories in a wide variety of ways, with new techniques and tools emerging all the time. Our project looks at podcasting and the speed with which this form of communication has spread. And, we figured what better way to explore podcasts and podcasting than to make one ourselves!

• Please use this link to download our 'enhanced' podcast.
• Our Show Notes can be accessed via a shared Google Doc by clicking on this link: http://tinyurl.com/7qewva9
• We hope you enjoy the show!

Tammy, Nick, & Marty

ECOMP 5004: Biopoem Project

Assignment #1 - Biopoems in the Classroom


The biopoem project can be used in classes and courses across the curriculum, as we did, as an kind of ice breaker activity where students have the opportunity to learn some basic facts about their peers. For students, this will kick off the making of connections between one another. For the teacher, this will help foster the development of the classroom culture.  Biopoems also provide teachers with the opportunity to integrate a potentially new piece of technology, like Glogster, as a possible choice for students to express their knowledge and understanding. 

Teachers could also use this concept with students so that they will construct another biopoem, but this time the students get to do a little role-playing. In language arts class, for example, students chooses a character from a book they're reading for class. In social studies, students do their writeup on a pharaoh they've been studying from Ancient Egypt. When we get to science, students must create a biopoem based on an element form the Periodic Table. Teachers could also use the biopoem project and turn it into a game of "Guess Who?" where students must use of their detective skills to figure out who the poem is about. The possibilities may be limited only by one's imagination.

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Biopoem.ME

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Biopoem.TEACHER

Book Reflection: Chapter 7: Fun With Flickr

In chapter 7, Will Richardson looks at photos, images and online organizers as powerful tools for student expression and igniters for project ideas. Leading the pack in this corner of web2.0 is the photo sharing site Flickr.com. Flickr allows users to upload digital images, organize them into albums or "photostreams" and set permissions for who to share them with. One of the founding struts of the site is the use of tags (there's that word-of-the-day again, aaaaahhhhh!…oh, flashback to the days of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, my apologies) to organize photos for searching later as well as take advantage of a growing number of web2.0 tools. For example, you can create RSS feeds from Flickr based on specific tags.

For teachers and students, an important place to visit on Flickr is their Creative Commons section. I like how Flickr provides a legend to educate us about the different types of permissions photo authors can give and how they would like their images treated and referenced. This provides an important teaching opportunity to educate students on citing sources from the Internet; citation is just as important for images as it is for text. In fact, some general search engines now have filters under their "advanced search" tool that allow you to find content that has been tagged with Creative Commons permissions.  Google | Yahoo! | Flickr

The potential for teachers to enrich assignments using Flickr are quite numerous and continue to grow. Just a few of the ideas Richardson mentions are: photo field trips, random writes and Make It Mine. And the projects do not have to be complex. Richardson describes a simply activity where students go to Flickr and in the search bar type in the first word that comes to mind. Then, they take the first image listed in the search results and writes a story about it. Check out my Diigo link list for several web2.0 applications highlighted in the book that use Flickr to enhance web content.


My Flickr Photostream
Diigo: Book link list